Mako Bates Runs for City Council in District 2

Mako Bates, an organizer for the local ballot initiative to create a $15 minimum wage in Portland, announced on Tuesday that he is running for City Council in District 2 (West End, Parkside, St. John Valley and Oakdale neighborhoods). Mako since withdrew from the campaign by not turning in any qualifying signatures and will not be on the November ballot.

Mako Bates

Mako was the primary author of the Ordinance Toward a Living Wage which will be on the ballot this November. He has lived in Oakdale and the West End since 2008. He graduated from the University of Southern Maine with degrees in sociology and electrical engineering. While at USM he helped the Student Government
manage a half-million dollar budget and founded a community garden on the Portland Campus.

Siting his experience in the USM student government, Mako stated that he could help the City in its struggle to maintain critical staff. Superintendents, City Managers and other key staff have turned-over quickly in the recent past, often holding positions for three years or less.

4 Comments

why did mako water down the 15 now initiative and sell out tipped workers, predominantly women? does he not believe in the people of portland, or that tipped workers and women are worth as much as everyone else?

a simple conversation with 15 Now Maine who got this effort started last year, about the feedback we were getting in our outreach and canvassing would have settled a lot of the anxieties around pushing for a more hard line initiative.

the 500 employee small business definition is completely out of touch with maine’s local economy. 15 Now Maine had agreed on a 50 employee definition. And selling out tipped workers is arbitrary and offensive. Abolish the tip credit, the single most significant result of wage theft, and workers rights violations in Maine.

bottom line, talking with workers in the streets last year, we determined that our radical goals were not radical enough for portlands workers. They wanted more, and they wanted it now. Instead the greens gave us less, and arbitrary delays.

If the greens did more foot work, had more conversations, and worked with 15 Now Maine as equals, instead of hijacking the movement we started, then together we could have built a stronger more popular grassroots initiative.